Love isn’t love until it’s past.”

When another is asked a question, take special care not to interrupt to answer it yourself.

Pythias once, scoffing at Demosthenes, said that his arguments smelt of the lamp.

When men are arrived at the goal, they should not turn back.

Custom is almost a second nature.

Numa forbade the Romans to revere an image of God which had the form of man or beast. Nor was there among them in this earlier time any painted or graven likeness of Deity, 8 but while for the first hundred and seventy years they were continually building temples and establishing sacred shrines, they made no statues in bodily form for them, convinced that it was impious to liken higher things to lower, and that it was impossible to apprehend Deity except by the intellect.

The pilot cannot mitigate the billows or calm the winds.

Wickedness is a wonderfully diligent architect of misery, of shame, accompanied with terror, and commotion, and remorse, and endless perturbation.

To fail to do good is as bad as doing harm.

Apothegms are the most infallible mirror to represent a man truly what he is.

He is a fool who leaves things close at hand to follow what is out of reach.

It was a pleasure merely to hear the sound of her voice, with which, like an instrument of many strings, she could pass from one language to another; so that there were few of the barbarian nations that she answered by an interpreter.

The superstitious man wishes he did not believe in gods, as the atheist does not, but fears to disbelieve in them.

The crowns of kings do not prevent those who wear them from being tormented sometimes by violent headaches.

Agesilaus being invited once to hear a man who admirably imitated the nightingale, he declined, saying he had heard the nightingale itself.

Friendship requires a steady, constant, and unchangeable character, a person that is uniform in his intimacy.

Good birth is a fine thing, but the merit is our ancestors.

It is indeed a desirable thing to be well-descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors.

These Macedonians are a rude and clownish people; they call a spade a spade.

The state of life is most happy where superfluities are not required and necessities are not wanting.

It is no flattery to give a friend a due character; for commendation is as much the duty of a friend as reprehension.

A few vices are sufficient to darken many virtues.

Since, during storms, flames leap from the humid vapors and dark clouds emit deafening noises, is it surprising the lightning, when it strikes the ground, gives rise to truffles, which do not resemble plants?

As geographers, Sosius, crowd into the edges of their maps parts of the world which they do not know about, adding notes in the margin to the effect that beyond this lies nothing but sandy deserts full of wild beasts, and unapproachable bogs.

Let us carefully observe those good qualities wherein our enemies excel us; and endeavor to excel them, by avoiding what is faulty, and imitating what is excellent in them.

Abstruse questions must have abstruse answers.

Lysander said that the law spoke too softly to be heard in such a noise of war.

Courage consists not in hazarding without fear; but being resolutely minded in a just cause.

Demosthenes overcame and rendered more distinct his inarticulate and stammering pronunciation by speaking with pebbles in his mouth.

The poor go to war, to fight and die for the delights, riches, and superfluities of others.

Water and our necessary food are the only things that wise men must fight for.

A healer of others, himself diseased.

For he who gives no fuel to fire puts it out, and likewise he who does not in the beginning nurse his wrath and does not puff himself up with anger takes precautions against it and destroys it.

He who owns a hundred sheep must fight with fifty wolves.

Either is both, and Both is neither.

Evidence of trust begets trust, and love is reciprocated by love.

Fate, however, is to all appearance more unavoidable than unexpected.

Vultures are the most righteous of birds: they do not attack even the smallest living creature.

Nothing made the horse so fat as the king’s eye.

The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in good education.

The richest soil, if uncultivated, produces the rankest weeds.

The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.

Of all the disorders in the soul, envy is the only one no one confesses to.

Among real friends there is no rivalry or jealousy of one another, but they are satisfied and contented alike whether they are equal or one of them is superior.

Nothing is cheap which is superfluous, for what one does not need, is dear at a penny.

Nor let us part with justice, like a cheap and common thing, for a small and trifling price.

Reason speaks and feeling bites.

Poverty is not dishonorable in itself, but only when it comes from idleness, intemperance, extravagance, and folly.

It is a high distinction for a homely woman to be loved for her character rather than for beauty.

Prosperity is no just scale; adversity is the only balance to weigh friends.

What, did you not know, then, that to-day Lucullus dines with Lucullus?

Solon being asked, namely, what city was best to live in. That city, he replied, in which those who are not wronged, no less than those who are wronged, exert themselves to punish the wrongdoers.

In human life there is constant change of fortune; and it is unreasonable to expect an exemption from the common fate. Life itself decays, and all things are daily changing.

The process may seem strange and yet it is very true. I did not so much gain the knowledge of things by the words, as words by the experience I had of things.

Those are greedy of praise prove that they are poor in merit.

Socrates said he was not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

Antisthenes says that in a certain faraway land the cold is so intense that words freeze as soon as they are uttered, and after some time then thaw and become audible, so that words spoken in winter go unheard until the next summer.

As bees extract honey from thyme, the strongest and driest of herbs, so sensible men often get advantage and profit from the most awkward circumstances.

Men who marry wives very much superior to themselves are not so truly husbands to their wives as they are unawares made slaves to their position.

Immoderate grief is selfish, harmful, brings no advantage to either the mourner or the mourned, and dishonors the dead.

All men whilst they are awake are in one common world: but each of them, when he is asleep, is in a world of his own.

Grief is like a physical pain which must be allowed to subside somewhat on its own before medical treatment is applied.

Water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow.

I am all that hath been, and is, and shall be; and my veil no mortal has hitherto raised.

Nature without learning is blind, learning apart from nature is fractional, and practice in the absence of both is aimless.

Cicero called Aristotle a river of flowing gold, and said of Plato’s Dialogues, that if Jupiter were to speak, it would be in language like theirs.

The measure of a man’s life is the well spending of it, and not the length.

No man ever wetted clay and then left it, as if there would be bricks by chance and fortune.

That we may consult concerning others, and not others concerning us.

If you declare that you are naturally designed for such a diet, then first kill for yourself what you want to eat. Do it, however, only through your own resources, unaided by cleaver or cudgel or any kind of ax.

Character is long-standing habit.

Silence is an answer to a wise man.

Anaximander says that men were first produced in fishes, and when they were grown up and able to help themselves were thrown up, and so lived upon the land.

Not by lamentations and mournful chants ought we to celebrate the funeral of a good man, but by hymns, for in ceasing to be numbered with mortals he enters upon the heritage of a diviner life.

It is wise to be silent when occasion requires, and better than to speak, though never so well.

Choose what is best, and habit will make it pleasant and easy.

The drop hollows out the stone not by strength, but by constant falling.

The whole of life is but a moment of time. It is our duty, therefore to use it, not to misuse it.

Oh, what a world full of pain we create, for a little taste upon the tongue.

Nature and wisdom never are at strife.

When the strong box contains no more both friends and flatterers shun the door.

When a man’s struggle begins within oneself, the man is worth something.

Where the lion’s skin will not reach, you must patch it out with the fox’s.

The omission of good is no less reprehensible than the commission of evil.

Learn to be pleased with everything, with wealth so far as it makes us beneficial to others; with poverty, for not having much to care for; and with obscurity, for being unenvied.

For the mind does not require filling like a bottle, but rather, like wood, it only requires kindling to create in it an impulse to think independently and an ardent desire for the truth.

Alexander esteemed it more kingly to govern himself than to conquer his enemies.

For it was not so much that by means of words I came to a complete understanding of things, as that from things I somehow had an experience which enabled me to follow the meaning of words.

For the correct analogy for the mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.

The whole life of man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it.

Extraordinary rains pretty generally fall after great battles.

The measure of a man is the way he bears up under misfortune.

A lover’s soul lives in the body of his mistress.

When the candles are out all women are fair.

Grief is natural; the absence of all feeling is undesirable, but moderation in grief should be observed, as in the face of all good or evil.

But for the sake of some little mouthful of flesh we deprive a soul of the sun and light, and of that proportion of life and time it had been born into the world to enjoy.

Neither blame or praise yourself.

Wise men are able to make a fitting use even of their enmities.

The talkative listen to no one, for they are ever speaking. And the first evil that attends those who know not to be silent is that they hear nothing.

It is a true proverb, that if you live with a lame man, you will learn to limp.

Spintharus, speaking in commendation of Epaminondas, says he scarce ever met with any man who knew more and spoke less.

Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little.

To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.

It is part of a good man to do great and noble deeds, though he risk everything.

A warrior carries his shield for the sake of the entire line.

Wisdom is neither gold, nor silver, nor fame, nor wealth, nor health, nor strength, nor beauty.

Caesar’s wife should be above suspicion.

I see the cure is not worth the pain.

Fate leads him who follows it, and drags him who resist.

An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.

Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.

The Spartans do not ask how many are the enemy but where are they.

Instead of using medicine, better fast today.

When Demosthenes was asked what were the three most important aspects of oratory, he answered, ‘Action, Action, Action.’

To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future.

The worship most acceptable to God comes from a thankful and cheerful heart.

Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech.

Barba non facit philosophum.

A good man will take care of his horses and dogs, not only while they are young, but also when they are old and past service.

Rest is the sweet sauce of labor.

Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.

Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks.

No beast is more savage than man when possessed with power answerable to his rage.

The great god Pan is dead.

God is the brave man’s hope, and not the coward’s excuse.

Proper listening is the foundation of proper living.

For the wise man, every day is a festival.

A Spartan woman, as she handed her son his shield, exhorted him saying, “As a warrior of Sparta come back with your shield or on it.

What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.

I don’t need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.

Come back with your shield – or on it.

The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.